Just Amazing

I saw this on Facebook and had to share it. I don’t know where it came from originally but I shared it from Mark Heiss’ page.

 

 

Authoring Autism

So for this post the prompt is:

“We’ve now read four books in a rather quick span of time — two fictional, two non. So, I’d like you to consider the following: What “truths” (purposeful scare quotes) about autism do these books have to offer? What stereotypes do they uphold? In what ways do the authors make you think differently about autism?

For this post, you may pick one book to focus on in particular, or you may choose to do a compare and contrast. You might choose to examine specific scenes or characters here, or you might choose to reflect on an issue that got you thinking in some way. Are these books “must-reads”? Are these books just about autism? How should we apprehend their messages?”

*image from from openlibrary.org

So I’ve decided to talk about the book I had to do a presentation with along with Roni and Andie (links to their page), which was “Songs of a Gorilla Nation,” by Dawn Prince-Hughes. And I really wanted to share what Andie had to say because I have the same feelings about it.

He says:

“The four books we’ve read this term all deal with autism, but in remarkably different ways. I argue that Dawn Prince-Hughes’ memoir Songs of the Gorilla Nation is the best of the four representations of life with autism. Prince-Hughes is the only one of the four authors to be on the autism spectrum herself. Because she is writing about her own experiences, Prince-Hughes essentially avoids the mistake of using stereotypes, while the other three arguably rely on them at times.”

 

I agree completely. We talked about in class how it made a difference to how you felt about the book because someone on the spectrum wrote the book. Therefore, you could believe and connect better to what was being said because it was someone’s real experiences and not something made up. It seems that today fictional accounts on say a disorder doesn’t do so much for the author’s credibility because it’s true. When learning something new about autism twice a week for a semester, it’s natural for us to think about how complex the disorder is and fictional books didn’t really help make the stereotypes disappear instead it can do the opposite really and make you think of the stereotypes that the book may use. This is what made this book so much more appealing, interesting and really more truthful because it was written by someone who knew first hand how it is to have autism.

 

 

 

Autistic’s Speaking Day!!!

This post is very late… Sorry. Hopefully I did this right. It’s been awhile since I last used iMovie.

 

 

Here is the articles I mentioned in the video: Baron Cohen “The Essential Difference: the male and female brain,” and Sarah’s “Cat in a Dog’s World.” Also I am not personally affiliated with Autism Speaks.

 

What an Experience! Final Project for Autism Class

SO our last assignment for class was to make a PSA and I decided to do three posters. Also I we had to do a letter of reflection which I will also post.

Last poster I did is a little big so I will post it in a link…

Movie night

Hope you like. This class was amazing and I learned so much!

 

I started Early – Took my Dog – (656) by Emily Dickinson : The Poetry Foundation

I started Early – Took my Dog – (656) by Emily Dickinson : The Poetry Foundation.

“Emily Dickinson:”The poet Emily Dickinson was a recluse and puzzling writer, and Vernon Smith believes she may have been autistic, too.” Online Graduate Programs

I’m not sure if Dickinson had autism but I know one thing, her work was amazing and different and even though sometimes I don’t know her motivation or inspiration for some poems, her work is definitely one of a kind and somthing I enjoy reading.

*I first learned of this poem in my autism class then I looked it up and found it on this site. So I must give credit. Thank you.

 

Autism, Narrative, and Character Development

For this blog we were asked (to make it simpler rather than me screwing up the paraphrasing):

For this blog post, we’d like you to write an introduction (approx. 150-250 words) to your own Autistic character. You can compose this introduction in whatever form seems most fitting — an intro paragraph, a short scene, or dialogue. Then, in the remainder of your blog post, please reflect on this process (approx. 100-200 words). What about this was challenging? Easy? What ethical principles guided your representation? If you had more time or space to develop your character, what would you do or say? How did our class readings (especially Curious Incident) influence your character?

HOWEVER,

Since I’m late posting this assignment, I wanted to post just a… I guess guidelines to writing about my character, who is actually a real human being. Here I asked his mother and brother to write about how they see DeAndre (who I mentioned in my first blog). I told them to write a brief biography and other things abut DeAndre. What they thought he would be like? What would be his likes and dislikes? And other questions like that.

So I only got a response from DeAndre’s mom (brother sucks, lol) and this is what she has to say:

• DeAndre is a 5 year old little boy who was diagnosed as having an Autism Spectrum Disorder. More specicifically he has a Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified. In short it is ASD – PDD/NOS.

  DeAndre does not talk but he has ways of expressing his needs and wants. DeAndre is also a very happy little boy, he’s always showing his emotions whether happy or sad. He loves people and loves to smile and laugh. When he’s very happy he does what we call his “happy dance”, where he jumps up and down and move his feet, left and right. It makes you want to dance with him. He also loves to give hugs and kisses. He also has that other side where he expresses when he is upset or mad about something, he has temper tantrums.

  Because DeAndre loves music I think he would probably study music in college. He loves the guaitar and loves to mimic playing it. He has toy guaitars all over the place and hopefully when he able to comprehend a little more we can get him started in early guaitar lessons. He also loves to mimic singing in a microphone. He will use anything that stands and closely resembles a microphone to do his performances.

  At the rate he is going, with the love and support of family and friends as well as his teachers, doctors and therapist, I believe DeAndre will be able to overcome this disorder and live a fulfilling life. His future looks bright.

  

  I’ve decided when I actually get time from my way too busy life to catch back up, I will definitely come back to this assignment and write a real narrative.

  *I got this picture from LaBonita’s (DeAndre’s mother) Facebook page. Thank you for your help!!

 

A More Subtle Approach to NT Ally-Hood

I absolutely loved the article by DJ Savarese called “Cultural Commentary: Communicate With Me.” It really made me smile. I have to compare it to this guest class blogger that my professor introduced us to named Bard. He posted a blog titled “What it means to be an ‘NT Ally’”* and my whole class including me was taken aback by it. His blog was very blunt and it intimidated most of us because we felt like anything we would say in response to his blog post would offend him. We are going to be skyping with him next on the 13^thand one of the concerns that one of my fellow class mates stated was that she was unsure of how to talk to him because she didn’t want to offend him. All of classmates have the same concern and really all we can do is remember that he knows that we are a class and the majority of us are fresh meat (new) to the world of autism. So we just have to say what we have to say knowing that we will make mistakes in the language that we use, because everyone is different and not all people like labels like HFA (high functioning autism) or LFA (low functioning autism).

 

Back to the point…

 

So DJ Savarese uses a softer approach to those who may not know how to interact with someone with autism that clearly has some trouble focusing, has some anxiety, etc. and in return he doesn’t come off as blunt and offensive. He gives easy and subtle advice because he knows that many people are confused and may or may not take the time out to become knowledgeable about autism and its culture. With Savarese, I can confidently go into the world of autism and learn about ally-hood and not be afraid to get things wrong. I don’t feel that way with Bard’s approach at all.

 

*Neurotypical (NT) = a person that identifies as being neurologically typical, or nondisabled.

 

Where We Fit in this World: Group Activity (response to Burke & Broderick)

Part 1: Positioning Ourselves

• 1. What terministic screens are we encountering? What do they filter in, and what do they filter out? What do they enable us to do and understand—and what do they prevent us from doing and understanding?
• Almost every term we encounter has a positive and negative factor or effect just like terminisitic screens. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we agree with them.
• 2. How should we deal?
• Look at these terms and associate them with autism
• 3. Did Broderick give you more of a perspective on Chew & Raymaker’s “10 Controversies”?
• It makes us realize how that the cure and recovery from autism is not desirable.
• 4. Who are these authors? How do their subject positions affect what they’re saying (or authoring)? Do their positions enhance their credibility, detract from it, etc.? To whom, do you think, are they writing? Who might benefit from what they’re saying?
• These authors range from a teacher to scientist and because they actually have probably put years into their studies it really doesn’t affect what they’re saying unless it was someone who hasn’t took the time to research what they’re talking about (for instance a student with only a semester of research). The authors position can affect their credibility a little but not so much in some cases. We might listen more to a scientist of autism studies than a teacher, but it really matters about the time that one puts into their work.

Part 2: Finding Fictions

• 1. What metaphors, fictions, or untruths does pop culture use to understand or represent not only autism, but other forms of neurological difference?) E.g., “intellectual disability,” “mental illness,” “learning disabilities,” etc?)
• Illness as a metaphor in definition is physical but we apply that to the mental state. Like if someone is hurting themselves that’s an illness or if someone is isolated it is believed that they are unhappy whereas that may not be the case.

Part 3: Screens and Charting

• 1. What does recovery mean?
• IS RECOVERY LIKE 100% RECOVERY OR JUST ENOUGH TO FUNCTION IN SOCIETY?
• Return to something that you were never at to begin with
• Retaining something that you lost.
• 2. What does intervention mean?
• To come, appear or lie between two things
• To involve oneself in a situation so as to alter or hinder an action or development
• When one thinks about intervening they’re thinking that they can better the situation; doing something that another could not do
• 3. What does acceptance mean?
• The action of consenting to receive or undertake something offered
• To affirm something as it is and as a whole
• 4. How are these things dissimilar?
• It’s self explanatory almost. If you accept something as it is there really is no just cause to intervene. As for recovery, it depends on who needs to recover especially in a situation with autism.
• What can and do theses concepts mean, both medically and culturally?
• Medically: When it comes to science things are more complicated because usually science looks at things as problems that need to be solved and in the autism world words are very sensitive just like any other culture and it’s really not the medical world’s concern because they have an objective.
• Culturally: When it comes to culture people’s feelings and emotions are taken into consideration. It becomes a world of parents, autistics of all ages and allies. It’s a world where people are respected, etc. It’s more personal; it connects more intimately.
• 5. Do these concepts compete or overlap?
• Yes because when you want someone to recover you intervene and when you intervene you either are accepting or not accepting the situation.

Links:

Chew & Raymaker Article “10 Autism Controversies”

Broderick’s Article “Autism As Rhetoric: Exploring Watershed Rhetorical Moments In  Applied Behavior Analysis Discourse”

 

They Grow Up: Where are the Adults?

“Under the deficit model, autistic people are portrayed as broken humans who are ill and require fixing to enable them to function normally in society. In contrast, non-autistic people are viewed as neurologically healthy and psychologically well.”– Scott Michael Robertson

As much as we talk about autism and see autism in our lives whether all the time or not, I’ve never actually thought about how I only thought about kids having autism. I guess when I seen a child with autism, I forgot that one day they will grow up and be adults one day. It’s actually kind of bizarre how I never think of this when encountering someone with autism. Indirectly, I was infantilizing autism (Jennifer L. Stevenson).

I can’t believe I actually forgot that kids grow up with autism. I guess I’m so blinded by my sympathy that I just forget the fact that some of the autistic kids may grow up and actually go to college one day. Since I’m new to autism, I’m just learning about low functioning autism (LFA) and high functioning autism (HFA).

Take a look at this video:

What are your first reactions and thoughts to this video? Did you notice how no one heard the woman answering their questions until the end? I noticed the lady wasn’t being heard. I started thinking about how she was answering the questions from experience. I also noticed that the people didn’t want to hear her. It reflects the position of autistic adults in the autism spectrum. They go unheard and people put them on the back burner. In my opinion, that has got to STOP!

Ok so take a look at this, though you may have seen it before, I got it from a reading my professor gave our class called, “Neurodiversity, Quality Of Life, And Autistic Adults: Shifting Research And Professional Focuses Onto Real-Life Challenges:”

“Autistic people are viewed under the neurodiversity model as individuals who possess a blend of cognitive strengths and weaknesses in the following core domains:

• Language, Communication, and Social Interaction
• Sensory Processing (environmental input)
• Motor Skill Execution (environmental output)

Goal-oriented and Reflexive Thinking, Planning, and Self-Regulation.” (Robertson)

Whereas “the deficit model portrays autistic people as ill, broken, and in need of fixing” (Robertson). In class we were talking about sympathy and pity and how sympathy goes with the first model and pity goes with the second model. We talked about how these “poster kids” stand as the face of autism because organizations like Autism Speaks, Autism Society of America, etc. targets a specific audience for example parents because it invokes a sense of parenting and sympathy from not only parents but other like myself. Also, we talked about how with children, we think about innocence and sympathy comes into play ad with adults we think that there’s something wrong with them and they’re weird. This contrast was very interesting to me because we are so quick to judge adults but children we give the benefit of the doubt.

So with all this being said and recognized, why aren’t autistic adults incorporated more into the publicity, for lack of a better word right now? I believe it would give people more a different view and perspective on autism if they seen, I’m sure, the many adults that live on their own, going to college, have jobs, LFA or HFA, etc. Think of the impact it could have if people remember the adults…

Wow!

I think that is all I want to say, but if not.. I’ll be back!

How’d I forget he will grow up?

I love this little guy!

 

“Awe-inspiring Mysteries” and the “Cure”

When it comes to the cure I think much like Michael John Carley in his article “Articles of Understanding: GRASP, and the word “Cure.” Sure “curing” autism may be a good thing but in whose eyes? When I think of “cure,” I think of parents working hard, maybe even a little too hard on “fixing” their child that they forget to focus all the energy and time into their child. What’s even more interesting in this article is the debate on what words should be used in the culture of autism. The culture of autism, in my opinion, has a little bit more important than the medical culture because it’s outside the hospitals and the doctor’s that autism really takes its part in the world. It’s a culture and it’s sensitive just like any other culture; it’s a world inside a world, if you understand what I’m saying. In class my professor was telling us the difference between words and how if the first letter is capitalized or not really makes a big difference. It’s like race and like sexuality, people have to be careful not to offend someone by using derogatory words so asking before you assume is always a good idea. Carley states, “And GRASP feels that it is these individuals who should be dictating what words are used to describe them—not the doctors and researchers. Even if we at GRASP are completely wrong as to the medical accuracy of such words, do Caucasian people get to tell African- Americans what words should and should not offend them? Should Latino women get to tell Asian men what they have a right to get upset about? Words hurt. And almost every one of our folks admits feeling unwanted to some degree when a well-meaning person tells them they hope there’s eventually a cure for what they have.” (10) It’s really the individual that decides what they prefer to be addressed as. All these things play a big role in this culture, and if us outsiders (those not affected by autism) want to understand this world completely we have to take account for these things.

He is "normal." He has his own world just like you and I. He is "normal."

“I won’t profess to you, as someone with AS, that I clearly know what’s going on inside the head of what might be your non-verbal daughter or son sitting there in their own world. But I do feel there’s more going on inside that head than we, myself included, usually give their credit for being. We just don’t see it, so it’s hard to believe. Furthermore it’s not on a level we understand (yet), and because we love them, this hurts. Obviously, we want to bond with those we love, not think of them as, at best, awe-inspiring mysteries.” (Carley 4) With parents being so engrossed in finding a cure they forget or may not realize that though their child has autism, their child may be happy in their own world. But because, in the case of a non-verbal child, there is no communication so how can they know? It’s hard to think of someone you love not being able to communicate and experience things the “normal” way so of course some parents will do anything to fight autism and find this “cure.”

This passage made me think of society today and not just in the United States. There is a long history that continues today; that what we do not understand something we persecute it. Not necessarily that parents are persecuting their children but I think of it as when someone is so blinded by something they do not understand something that they take things into their own hands. In the case of the “cure,” priorities may become jumbled and things that should be most important (the one affected by autism) lose its place in line. I would also have to agree that finding a “cure” could not be labeled as disability studies because when I think of disability studies I think of focusing on the disability, how it works and who is affected by it, etc. When I think of “cure” I think of focusing solely on “fixing” the probablem. I don’t think of getting to know the disability like it was your best friend. “Cure” isn’t your best friend, it’s more like your mom, dad or doctor.

This leads me to the video “Fixing Autism.” I believe this video says a lot and is very powerful. The creator doesn’t really want to “fix” his daughter and it’s clear that many will not understand that because they cannot see in between the lines, which I think is so important to understanding this culture of autism. However, I think of this video as a PSA that should be instilled in everyone’s mind whether affected by autism or not. It’s very informational and the simple creativity the creator used was amazing! It made me want to share it like my professor shared it with our class.

We had a blog post to read called “Defining Curebie-ism” and it was an interesting read. It is very controversial, and when I read some of the comments, I really couldn’t finish because it is just that controversial. What I did learn though is that a “curebie” is defined as:

“a fanatical desperation to destroy a child’s autistic traits in their entirety. Autism takes on a separate and distinct identity in the curebie mind; it is personified as a demonic foe that must be defeated at all costs. The child ceases to be seen as a sentient person and instead is treated as if he were a battleground for a cosmic struggle between good and evil. Jonathan Shestack, co-founder and president of Cure Autism Now, exemplified this mindset when he wrote that autism parents do not have a child but “a shell, a ghost of all the dreams and hopes you ever had.”

This alone is enough to see the emotions and anger that can spark in this world of autism because it is a sensitive thing to people. As for me I don’t really have an opinion on this article besides, “Wow!” That’s really all my feelings summed in one word. It’s a very bold and blunt opinionated blog post. You have to read and decide for yourself really how you feel about it and what is your take on it as well.